Wordmanship: Book learnin'

12:00 PM,
Apr. 10, 2013

From John Ortberg's 'Who Is This Man?' Mapes learned the English word cemetery comes from a Greek word for a dormitory where people would sleep. Early Christians, with their belief in resurrection, adopted the word for burial grounds.

Written by

Terry Mapes
wordmanship.blogspot.com

My recent reading has taught me a number of things about the English language I hadn't known before. Here are some of them:

Humble pie: Umbles was the term used for the innards of a deer. This was the worst part of the deer, so naturally it was what the servants ate after the rich folks were served the best parts. When we say we had to eat humble pie, it is a reference to the umbles meat pies once eaten by the lower classes in England. I learned this from "The Etymologicon" by Mark Forsyth.

Cemetery: From John Ortberg's "Who Is This Man?" I learned the English word cemetery comes from a Greek word for a ...